New option in Preferences -> Network to select the preferred quality for streaming sites such as DailyMotion, Vimeo and so on (all those which are handled by youtube-dl).

The audio equalizer is now disabled by default on Linux to prevent a no sound problem for users with old versions of mpv.

Fix some problems with the letterbox filter (the ‘add black borders’ option).

The HDPI support is now also enabled on the portable package for Windows.

Fix subtitles not disappearing when using the letterbox filter with mplayer.

Fix: now the time is correctly displayed in the thumbnail generator pictures when SMPlayer is built with Qt 5.

]]>https://blog.smplayer.info/smplayer-17-10-2-has-been-released/feed/0Linux users may need to update mpv in order to use SMPlayer 17.10https://blog.smplayer.info/linux-users-may-need-to-update-mpv-in-order-to-use-smplayer-17-10/
https://blog.smplayer.info/linux-users-may-need-to-update-mpv-in-order-to-use-smplayer-17-10/#commentsSat, 30 Sep 2017 20:44:52 +0000http://blog.smplayer.info/?p=939Continue reading →]]>The mpv developers have deprecated some video and audio filters. SMPlayer 17.10 stops using those deprecated filters and is now using new filters.

Unfortunately older versions of mpv may not have those filters. This can cause playback without audio or video. A workaround is to turn off all video and audio filters. If you don’t have audio, turn off the audio equalizer in Preferences -> General -> Audio. Another workaround is to switch to mplayer by selecting mplayer as multimedia engine in Preferences -> General.

]]>https://blog.smplayer.info/linux-users-may-need-to-update-mpv-in-order-to-use-smplayer-17-10/feed/10SMPlayer 17.9: now you can change the search method for subtitleshttps://blog.smplayer.info/smplayer-17-9-now-you-can-change-the-search-method-for-subtitles/
https://blog.smplayer.info/smplayer-17-9-now-you-can-change-the-search-method-for-subtitles/#commentsWed, 30 Aug 2017 20:12:42 +0000http://blog.smplayer.info/?p=931Continue reading →]]>SMPlayer 17.9 gives the possibility to change the search method for finding subtitles on opensubtitles.org. SMPlayer has always used in the past the “hash” method, now it’s possible to search by filename.

This is an explanation of both methods:

Hash: SMPlayer calculates a hash key from the video file and uses that hash, along with the file size, to search on opensubtitles. This is the most accurate method because it will return subtitles for your video, even if you rename the video file. On the other hand opensubtitles must have the hash in its database in order this method to work.

Filename: SMPlayer will search for subtitles just using the filename. This may return more results than the previous method but some of the subtitles may not be suitable for your video.

In order to change it, click on the Options button in the Find Subtitles window.

]]>https://blog.smplayer.info/smplayer-17-9-now-you-can-change-the-search-method-for-subtitles/feed/1SMPlayer 17.8 has been releasedhttps://blog.smplayer.info/smplayer-17-8-has-been-released/
https://blog.smplayer.info/smplayer-17-8-has-been-released/#commentsThu, 10 Aug 2017 20:28:02 +0000http://blog.smplayer.info/?p=927Continue reading →]]>SMPlayer 17.8 brings a new audio filter which makes the audio easier to listen to on headphones. You can find it in the menu Audio -> Filters.

This is the ffmpeg earwax filter. From the ffmpeg documentation:

This filter adds ‘cues’ to 44.1kHz stereo (i.e. audio CD format) audio so that when listened to on headphones the stereo image is moved from inside your head (standard for headphones) to outside and in front of the listener (standard for speakers).

If you’re playing a video with subtitles on Chromecast changes in this section take effect immediately.

]]>https://blog.smplayer.info/new-subtitles-settings-for-chromecast/feed/1Subtitle support for Chromecast in SMPlayer 17.3https://blog.smplayer.info/subtitle-support-for-chromecast-in-smplayer-17-3/
https://blog.smplayer.info/subtitle-support-for-chromecast-in-smplayer-17-3/#commentsMon, 06 Mar 2017 21:48:33 +0000http://blog.smplayer.info/?p=916Continue reading →]]>SMPlayer 17.1 added support for Chromecast. Now SMPlayer 17.3 has just added the possibility to display subtitles on Chromecast (still an experimental feature).

However currently there are some limitations:

Only external subtitles are supported.

The subtitles must be in the same folder of the video.

The subtitles must be in vtt format.

How to use subtitles, step by step

First you need to convert the subtitles to vtt. You can convert subtitles in srt format to the vtt format here: http://chromecast.smplayer.info/convert-srt-to-vtt. Or just use any other tool you may find on the Internet. Store the vtt file in the same folder of the video.

Play the video in SMPlayer and select the vtt subtitle from the menu Subtitles -> Primary track.

Select the option Play on Chromecast from the Play menu.

Now connect to Chromecast and start playback as usual. The subtitles should be displayed on the TV screen.

Note: you can actually select a subtitle in srt or any other format in SMPlayer, but the SMPlayer Chromecast Control will try to use a subtitle file with the same name but with the vtt extension.

]]>https://blog.smplayer.info/subtitle-support-for-chromecast-in-smplayer-17-3/feed/15Support for Chromecast in SMPlayer 17.1https://blog.smplayer.info/support-for-chromecast-in-smplayer-17-1/
https://blog.smplayer.info/support-for-chromecast-in-smplayer-17-1/#commentsFri, 20 Jan 2017 17:46:35 +0000http://blog.smplayer.info/?p=895Continue reading →]]>SMPlayer 17.1 features experimental support for Chromecast. Now you can send videos from SMPlayer to your Chromecast device, including local files from your computer and online streams such as TV channels or videos from sites like YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo, Vevo and many more.

Requirements

SMPlayer 17.1

Google Chrome browser (or Chromium) with the Google Cast extension installed (or alternatively a smartphone or tablet with the Google Chrome browser, if you prefer to control playback with one of those devices)

Ubuntu and debian users must install the package webfs (sudo apt-get install webfs). This is a tiny web server that SMPlayer will run in order to serve local files to Chromecast.

How to play a video on Chromecast

Start to play a video in SMPlayer, then select the option Play on Chromecast from the Play menu. (After that you can stop playback in SMPlayer).

Note: at this point Windows users will probably get a notification from the Windows firewall. Please click on “Allow access”. Otherwise Chromecast won’t be able to access the files in your computer.

A web page will be opened in your web browser with the URL of the video. This web page can communicate with your Chromecast device. You’ll find options to connect/disconnect, start playback and controls for play, pause, volume, seek…

Important: although SMPlayer will open the web page with your default web browser this will probably only work with Google Chrome and Chromium.

Subtitles are not supported yet.

There’s also an option in the context menu of the playlist to open the selected video on Chromecast.

Web server

In order to server local files (from your computer) to Chromecast, SMPlayer will run a tiny web server. You can change some of the settings for the server (like the port to use) in the SMPlayer preferences: Network -> Chromecast.

There’s the new option ‘Show info on OSD’ in View -> OSD (shortcut Shift + I). It displays info about the current media (resolution, bitrate…) on the OSD.

Press “Shift + I” (or just “I”) to turn it off.

New configuration options for the playlist

There are available more options in Preferences -> Playlist to better control the behaviour of the playlist. Some of the new options will allow the playlist to be more suitable to store bookmarks (turn off the options “start playback after loading the playlist” and “play next file automatically”). The current favourites menu in SMPlayer is not designed to handle many items, however the playlist can support without problem hundreds and even thousands of items, so I think for bookmarks with a lot of items it’s better to use the playlist.

Another change in the playlist, now the load/save buttons are grouped together in a popup menu.